Welcome Home, Mr. Blackgaard

Edwin Blackgaard’s traveling theater troupe has fallen on hard times. In the small town of Pecanburg, he performs a two-man version of Hamlet for nineteen paying customers and some livestock. Even Edwin knows that something is missing from his performance, though he cannot identify it. After the show, attorney Morton Dunkey arrives with unexpected news about the will of Edwin’s late brother, Regis.

Regis has left Edwin the Electric Palace in Odyssey. Bart Rathbone had borrowed the money to open the store and lost it after his involvement in Regis’s crimes, so the property has passed to Edwin. Regis’s will forbids Edwin to sell it outside the family. Worse, if Edwin refuses the inheritance, a trust fund supporting their mother in a nursing home will be revoked. Unable to care for her while traveling, Edwin sees no choice but to return to the town he fled.

Edwin is terrified that Odyssey still condemns him for running away during his brother’s attack. On the road, he dreams that the townspeople pelt him with produce, cover him in tar and feathers, and force him to cluck like a chicken. His assistant Shakespeare wakes him just as they reach Odyssey, but the fear remains. Edwin goes first to the Electric Palace, where he finds Bart and Doris Rathbone searching through trash in the alley.

Bart and Doris initially mistake Edwin for Regis and flee from what they think is a ghost. After Edwin explains his identity and ownership, Bart eagerly accepts an offer to help operate the store again. Before they part, Edwin asks how Odyssey now regards the Blackgaard name. Bart bluntly tells him that no name in town could be lower.

On the walk to Whit’s End, Edwin hides behind Shakespeare and watches for tar and feathers. Instead, people greet him politely, and Tom Riley welcomes him warmly. At Whit’s End, Jack is equally pleased to see him. Their kindness only makes Edwin more anxious; he believes they must be hiding their anger. At last he confesses that he feels like a coward who deserted Odyssey when it needed him most.

Jack and Tom assure Edwin that no one hates him. They understand why he left and do not believe he could have stopped Regis. The best service he can offer now is to reopen the Harlequin Theatre and make the Electric Palace a store that cares about customers instead of profit alone. Edwin hears their advice but decides he must perform some grand, cleansing act to buy back the town’s affection.

Against Bart’s furious objections, Edwin advertises a great giveaway and empties the Electric Palace. Every customer leaves with free merchandise. When the shelves are bare, however, Edwin feels no better. Jack explains that the forgiveness Edwin seeks is not really the town’s. Like Hamlet, Edwin is being driven by guilt over an event he could not control. Staying in Odyssey would not have enabled him to stop Regis. The person Edwin has refused to forgive is himself.

The realization gives Edwin a fresh understanding of Hamlet - and a painful view of the store he has destroyed. Jack invites him to a welcome-home gathering at Whit’s End. There, Edwin finds most of the Electric Palace merchandise waiting for him. Jack and Tom have explained the giveaway to the townspeople, and nearly everyone has willingly returned what they received. Much of it has required retrieval from Bart and Doris, who had gathered more than their share.

Moved by this proof of acceptance, Edwin promises never to forget the kindness of his friends. He offers the finest expression of gratitude he knows: an immediate one-man performance of Hamlet. Before anyone can escape, Odyssey’s restored actor launches into “To be or not to be.”